Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 10.

[p. 17] elementary schools, of which Prussia, with a population equal to that of the United States, has now forty-three, of the Protestant and Catholic denominations, furnishing annually from eight to nine hundred teachers, well informed and trained during three years for their future avocation.

Second, Legal obligation of parents and guardians to send children under their care, unless under qualified teachers at home or in authorized private schools, to the public schools from the first day of their seventh to the last day of their fourteenth years.

Third, The foundation of the whole system on a religious and moral basis, so that the first, or the first two hours of each day are directed entirely to a regular course of religious instruction, teaching, besides the reading of the Scriptures (for the Catholics, histories taken from the Bible), all the duties of man towards his Creator, the constituted authorities, and his fellow creatures, as they are inculcated by the Gospel.

It must not be inferred that because Brooks seems to have laid little stress on the need of religious training in the public schools, he was indifferent to religious training for the young. When one remembers the turmoil and confusion that history records as existing in the ecclesiastical circles of Massachusetts in 1836, when families were divided, friends and neighbors became enemies, business suffered, litigation was instituted in many instances, and strained relations were created, some of which continued almost to our time, it is significant that in the midst of the denominational strife, Brooks on Fast Day, 1836, could bring together in his church at Hingham an inter-denominational convention to consider Sunday-school work. He made the opening address, in which he dealt with the necessity of applying recognized educational methods to Sunday-school teaching. The meeting must have been a long one, but that was a characteristic of the meetings of that time. The names of twelve of the speakers are given in the report in the Hingham paper, prepared by Mr. Brooks, and among them are found Unitarian and Trinitarian Congregationalists, Baptists, and Methodists. One sentence from the report must suffice: ‘It seemed deeply impressed on many minds that Sabbath-schools were to ’